Reasoning further that a man capable of murder would be unafraid of curses, Oidipous works to develop a psychological profile of the killer. Yet the killer did in fact greatly fear something like a curse: an oracular pronouncement. It was precisely this fear that led him forever to turn his back on Corinth, setting him on the path on which he would kill a traveler unknown to him. Thus, it would be more accurate to observe that he who fears a prophecy may well realize it due precisely to his fear. This restatement would apply equally well to Laios, who so greatly feared an oracular pronouncement that he ordered the murder of his own infant son. Both Oidipous and his father commit murder not because they are careless of curses but rather because they fear a curse’s realization. Athens, too, the audience might extrapolate, so fears the Delphic prophecy according victory to the Spartans that, like Oidipous, it is somehow actually hastening that prophecy’s realization. If this is so the oracle is self-fulfilling: the fear it induces could be aiding the Spartans. [Md] [Mei] [Mi] [Apa] [Mw] [Aj]